Have you ever heard of Frank Abignale? When he was a teenager in the 1960’s he discovered that he could trick people into believing all kinds of untrue things about him and then steal from them. In the movie about his life, Catch Me if You Can, Leonardo di Caprio played Frank as the charming impersonator and thief he was in real life.

At first tricking people was like an interesting game. Frank started on his first day of high school by pretending to be a French instructor. Next he impersonated a doctor at a hospital. Within a few years, when Frank pretended to be an airline pilot, he was able to draw a fat paycheck from the airline. Then he began to forge paychecks and he got away with millions of dollars.

So many people liked Frank that it was hard to catch him. His friends didn’t believe such a charming guy could really be a criminal and they turned a blind eye to his antics and let him slip away time after time. The one dogged FBI agent who knew who Frank really was fought a lonely battle to catch him, and when he finally nabbed him, Frank ended up in prison.

Indicting and Convicting Law-Breakers

God gave the laws, but he expected his people to enforce them. One of the sins God hated the most was child sacrifice. His wrath against this specific sin shows up through the entire Old Testament.

God’s Law demanded the death penalty for people who offered children as a burnt sacrifice to Molek. He told Israel to put them to death by stoning and he added that he also would cut them off. In this case, cutting the sinner off probably meant eternal damnation. Even if his people turned a blind eye to the Molek worshipper, God would carry out his sentence against him.

How could people tolerate a person who sacrificed his children to a false god?

Turning in the Neighbors

G.J. Wenham says that in the small world of villages and clans people were loath to turn each other in. They would rather let it be none of their business – pretend it wasn’t happening – wait for someone else to blow the whistle. It was very frightening and disruptive to confront someone in a way that might lead to personally stoning him or her to death.

Under God’s Law it was private citizens who had to bring charges against offenders. They brought the proof and argued the case that convinced the judge someone should be convicted and sentenced. Then they carried out the sentence. There was no paid police force or prison system in ancient Israel. Indictment, prosecution, conviction, sentencing and punishment all took place in face to face encounters between the criminal, his victim, his prosecutors, his defenders, the judge and those who enforced the sentence. They lived as neighbors and knew each other very well.

God’s Point of View

Even though it was hard for people to indict their neighbors, God expected it of them. Three times in Leviticus 20 God reminded his people who they were and what they must do. He expected nothing less than holiness and obedience.

“Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.” Leviticus 20:7

“I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations.” Leviticus 20:24

“You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Leviticus 20:26

Penalties for Specific Sins

 We have read the moral and ceremonial laws that are listed in Leviticus 20-21 before, but this time they are listed with the specific penalties assigned to them. the following crimes had a maximum penalty of death.

• Child sacrifice
• Cursing one’s parents
• Adultery
• Homosexual behavior
• Marrying a mother and her daughter at the same time
• Bestiality
• A priest’s daughter who prostituted herself

There were lesser degrees of punishments that could be imposed and probably were in most cases. God left it up to his people to execute justice and death was reserved for people who absolutely refused to repent and turn from their sins.

Sin broke God’s order of Creation. From the time sin entered the world God sought to curb people’s sinful behavior. From his point of view, human sin actually made the earth sick.

“Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.” Leviticus 20:22

Instructions for Priests

In the set-apart nation of Israel, the priests were even more set apart. They had to be mindful of everything they did so that they would not defile the tabernacle where they served.

An ordinary priest was not allowed to help prepare the dead for burial unless it was a close relative: his parents, his wife, his child, his brother or an unmarried sister. The high priest could not even help with the funerals of close relatives. He was not allowed to show signs of mourning by tearing his hair or garments because he was not his own, he belonged to God. To show signs of distress over a death would be disloyal to God who had ordained the death.

Priests were not allowed to shave their heads, trim the edges of their beards, or scar themselves by cutting. Their heads and flesh belonged to God and must not be altered from what God gave them.

Ordinary priests could marry virgins or widows, but they couldn’t marry a prostitute or divorced woman. The high priest could only marry a virgin. This may have been to ensure that a son who might succeed him as high priest was truly his child.

Priests with any kind of disability or defect, from birth or caused by an accident, were not allowed to serve at the altar or in the tent of meeting. They could partake of the provisions given to the priests, but they was not allowed near either the curtain of the tabernacle or the altar.

Holiness 

Holiness included wholeness. It may seem harsh that people who were unclean, disabled or deformed could not serve at the tabernacle, but God made sure that his people never forgot his holiness.

“The priests are to perform my service in such a way that they do not become guilty and die for treating it with contempt. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.” Leviticus 22:9

Instructions for Worthy Offerings

God did not want defective animals offered as sacrifices either. The only exception was a freewill offering that could include an ox or sheep that was deformed or stunted. All other animal offerings had to be free of injury, illness or disabling conditions.

God seems to have had compassion on mothers of calves, lambs and baby goats that were brought as offerings. The babies were to be left with their mothers for seven days before being offered. No mother animal and her baby were to be killed on the same day.

Holiness was Paramount

The constant theme of Leviticus was that the people were to be holy as God was holy.

“Keep my commands and follow them. I am the Lord. Do not profane my holy name, for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord, who made you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 22:31-33

What could Israel do but obey? There was only one God, they belonged to him, and he required holiness. As the Psalmist said later, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” Psalm 14:1

The same admonition stands today. People are foolish to think that there is no God. And if we believe God exists, we must accept that he expects holiness from us.